1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to edible food products and methods of manufacture thereof; and, more particularly, to compositions, and methods of manufacture, for enhancing the flavors of foodstuffs to which they are applied while, at the same time, serving to neutralize excess cholesterol in foods consumed as well as serum cholesteol.
The notion that cholesterol intake results in serious specific physiological consequences is currently emerging as popular dogma among the population at large. Seldom has nutritional science seen adoption across such a wide consumer segment of an ever increasing, health conscious public.
The perceived necessity to control or eliminate cholesterol intake is so strong and urgent that long established cultural eating habits are changing abruptly.
Unfortunately, many well established food and agricultural industries are, perhaps unwisely, being radically impacted economically as buying habits of the consumer shift toward implementing food choices which reduce or eliminate cholesterol. Little or no thought has been given to what the consequences of such a radical and sharp change in eating habits might prove to be. The consumers know what they are running away from; but, they apparently do not know what they might be running into. Current medical advice to patients exhibiting numerous medical conditions believed to be influenced by cholesterol to minimize and/or discontinue cholesterol intake and/or medicate with available anticholesteremic agents has authenticated and reinforced this trend.
Highly charged, media-inspired awareness levels have spawned numerous marketing ploys by food producers. These are aimed at capitalizing on some pre-existing absence of cholesterol, or some cholesterol influencing property in old products, primarily via restructured advertising or labeling claims such as ". . . contains NO cholesterol . . . " or ". . . high in fiber . . . ".
Nutritional science has established that some types of dietary fiber, such as hydrocolloids, mucilages, gums and pectins, for example, can not only complex cholesterol contained in foods and thereby reduce its uptake, but even reduce serum cholesterol if taken over a period of time. In addition, it has been known that triglycerides can be reduced by the consumption of gum arabic on a regular basis.
As the following Table I shows, gums do not contain soluble dietary fiber (SDF); but, are essentially soluble dietary fibers themselves. The gums listed in Table I are classed by the FDA as ingredients that may be safely used in foods. For example, pectin is included in the list of permitted additives in standardized foods when a technological need can be proven. In unstandardized foods, the use of pectin is only limited by "good manufacturing practice." See, Pectin Product Bulletin, p. 3, published by A/S KOBENHAVNSPEKTINFABRIK, Copenhagen, Denmark.
TABLE I ______________________________________ GUM SOLUBLE FIBERS ______________________________________ Pectin 100% Arabic 94% Locust bean 92% Tragacanth 90% Cellulose 88% Agar 85% Xanthan 85% Alginate 80% Carrageenan 78% ______________________________________
In an opinion paper in response to the increasing interest in fiber levels in foods, the FDA has stated that 30 grams of fiber should be consumed per day (See, Product Data Bulletin entitled "Formulating With Nutriloid Soluble Dietary Fibers", A.01.07, TIC GUMS, p. 1).
Cholesterol is a naturally occurring sterol found in all animal fat. Human metabolism can synthesize cholesterol from almost any food material. The synthesis takes place in most, if not all, cells involved in animal metabolism. The degree of individual synthesis seems to be genetically related since, given the same basic diet, different persons will generate wide variations of serum cholesterol. Clearly, dietary control aimed at reducing intake in itself cannot, in many cases, be expected to be an entirely successful strategy for reduction of hypercholesteremia.
Currently, consumers can take fiber supplements by pill or capsule, obtain a prescription for hypocholesteremic adjuvants (HCA), avoid or restrict foods known to contain cholesterol and consume more high fiber containing foods.
A common guar gum capsule supplement available from health food stores, for example, costs approximately $0.088 per gram of dietary fiber as contrasted with: guar gum at $0.003 per gram; karaya at $0.007 per gram; tragacanth at $0.026 per gram; locust bean at $0.007 per gram; carrageenan at $0.01 per gram; xanthan at $0.002 per gram; arabic at $0.002 per gram; and, CMC at $0.008 per gram.
Many consumers are dissatisfied with new cholesterol reduced diets since many important foods of long standing importance to them--for example dairy products, pork and pork based products, eggs, etc.--are either not available on such diets or available only in limited quantities; and, even then, such products must be prepared in ways not desired by the consumer such as "well done" beef for the devotee of "rare beef". Basic industries, such as the beef industry, cannot change the basic nature of beef or free it of cholesterol.
There have been attempts to interest the poultry industry in new poultry diets which can result in cholesterol reduced poultry and poultry products. The magnitude of these reductions--approximately 40% to 50% reductions in eggs, for example--cannot, at the present time, justify the additional expense for such products. Consequently, the poultry industry continues to face serious declines in sales at various levels.
Food flavor enhancement has been the object of serious study by food specialists since discovery of flavor enhancement properties and the isolation of monosodium glutamate (MSG, C.sub.5 H.sub.8 NaO.sub.4) in 1908. MSG intensifies and enhances flavor while, in quantities normally used, it does not add any flavor of its own. It is this point which differentiates "flavor enhancers" from "seasonings" or "flavor integers" which do serve to add flavors of their own. Salt is a "seasoning", while sugar and common food acids, such as citric acid (C.sub.6 H.sub.8 O) and adipic acid (C.sub.6 H.sub.10 O.sub.4), are considered "flavor integers".
There are several theories about how flavor enhancers, integers and potentiators work. Thus, flavor potentiators are believed by some to increase the sensitivity of taste buds. Flavor integers, on the other hand, are synergistic reactants contained in more or less all food, to some degree. Flavor enhancers act as solvents or detergents, freeing more flavors from foods, thus making more flavor available for tasting and assisting flavors in penetrating taste buds more readily. MSG is effective in enhancing flavors of foods in parts per thousand, while other potentiators are capable of enhancing flavor only in parts per billion, or even less.
Moreover, ingestion of food containing MSG has been found to cause headaches and nausea in persons sensitive to it. This reaction, which may be a mild form of allergic anaphylaxsis, has been referred to as "Chinese restaurant syndrome." Flavor potentiators and enhancers improve or amplify flavor beneficially. As far as is known, they are otherwise not very beneficial, or are entirely nonbeneficial, and may, such as with MSG, prove eventually to result in disturbing side effects after consumption.
Prior to the advent of the present invention, flavor enhancer compositions exhibiting additional major nutritional benefits have simply been unknown. However, salt replacers or reducers have been in use for some time. They have not become popular products due to bitter, soapy or chemical tastes perceived by most consumers. Some products have been produced which are combinations of other ingredients, including sodium chloride, in order to minimize this problem. To date, they have met with only moderate success.
2. Background Art
The fields related to food technogy--and, particularly those related to cholesterol, flavor enhancement and the effects of consumption of soluble dietary fibers--are highly crowded and well-developed. Those interested in a typical, but far from exhaustive, bibliography relating thereto are referred, merely by way of example, to the following publications:
1. Martin Glicksman, Gum Technology In The Food Industry, Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, pp. 94-505 (1969). PA0 2. A. A. Lawrence, Edible Gums and Related Substances, Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, NJ (1973). PA0 3. R. A. A. Muzzarelli, Natural Chelating Polymers: Alginic Acid, Chitin and Chitosan, Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 23-247 (1973). PA0 4. Roy L. Whistler, Industrial Gums: Polysaccharides and their Derivatives, Academic Press, New York, pp. 29-513 (1973). PA0 5. David Kritchevsky, Hypolipidemic Agents, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 29-90, 109-140, 151-182, 216-223, 349-395, 409-414 (1975). PA0 6. Andrew A. Lawrence, Natural Gums for Edible Purposes, Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, NJ (1976). PA0 7. Gene A. Spiller and Ronald J. Amen, Fiber in Human Nutrition, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 2-6, 9-18, 171-182, 185-267 (1976). PA0 8. Gene A. Spiller and Ronald J. Amen, Topics in Dietary Fiber Research, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 105-125 (1978). PA0 9. K. W. Heaton, Dietary Fibre: Current Developments of Importance to Health, Technomic Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, CT, pp. 9, 45-75, 97-151 (1979). PA0 10. Heinz A. Hoppe, et al, Marine Algae in Pharmaceutical Science, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 24, 139, 165, 203, 237, 243, 293, 303, 525, 693, 711 (1979). PA0 11. Roy L. Whistler and Theodore Hymowitz, Guar: Agronomy, Production, Industrial Use and Nutrition, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, IN, pp. 114-117 (1979). PA0 12. Gene A. Spiller and Ruth McPherson Kay, Medical Aspects of Dietary Fiber, Plenum Medical Book Company, New York, p. 43-256 (1980). PA0 13. V. J. Chapman and D. J. Chapman, Seaweeds and their Uses, Chapman and Hall, London, pp. 62-97 (1980). PA0 14. Robert L. Davidson,Handbook of Water-Soluble Gums and Resins, McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, pp. 2-1 -24-1 (1980). PA0 15. Royal College of Physicians of London, Medical Aspects of Dietary Fibre, Pitman Medical, Kent, Great Britain, pp. 1-8, 63-159 (1980). PA0 16. U. P. T. James and Olof Theander, Analysis of Dietary Fiber in Food, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York (1981). PA0 17. Martin Glicksman, Food Hydrocolloids, Volume I, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 101-124, 127-167 (1982). PA0 18. Glyn O. Phillips, et al, Gums and Stabilisers for the Food Industry, Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 351-370 (1982). PA0 19. Ivan Furda, Unconventional Sources of Dietary Fiber, ACS Symposium Series 214, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp. 1-32, 49-60, 71-104 (1983). PA0 20. Martin Glicksman, Food Hydrocolloids, Volume II, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, p. 7-190 (1983). PA0 21. Audry Eytons, The F-Plan Diet, Bantam Books, NY (1984). PA0 22. Barbara Huff, Physicians Desk Reference for Non-Prescription Drugs, Barnhart, Oradell, NJ, pp. 506, 418, 622 (1985). PA0 23. Yeshajahu Pomeranz, Functional Properties of Food Components, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, pp. 91-118, 469-471 (1985). PA0 24. Martin Glicksman, Food Hydrocolloids, Volume III, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 9-232 (1986). PA0 25. George E. Inglett and S. Ingemar Falkenhag, Dietary Fibers: Chemistry and Nutrition, Academic Press, New York, pp. 31, 49, 117, 173, 251. PA0 26. Martin S. Peterson and Lionel H. Johnson, Encyclopedia of Food Science, AVI, Westport, CT, pp. 279-287.
Fiber supplements--particularly refined, soluble dietary fibers (SDF) such as pectin (mixture of esterified galacturonan, galactan and araban), sodium alginate (C.sub.6 H.sub.7 NaO.sub.6), karaya gum and guar gum--are expensive and relatively difficult to handle. They are not available in any convenient form for the consumer to use as part of day to day dietary habits; and, even if they were, a particular problem still faced by the consumer would be in judging how much and how to add them to the diet in order to compensate for high cholesterol-bearing foods.
Moreover, SDF's are soluble only in extreme dilution; and, even then will form thick, mucilaginous gels which could result in food sprinkled with gelatinous coated, gritty bits of fiber rendering the food virtually inedible.
Alternatively, if SDF granules were first solubilized for use on food by the addition of water, they would form highly dilute, viscous, slimy coatings similar to thick mucilage, perhaps edible but flavor diluted, and otherwise texturally and hedonically altogether repugnant.
TABLE II ______________________________________ COMPARATIVE VISCOSITY OF SOME DIETARY FIBERS.sup.1 GUM cP ______________________________________ Gum arabic (20% by weight) 50 Locust bean gum 100 Methylcellulose 150 Gum tragacanth 200 Carrageenan 300 High viscosity sodium carboxymethylcellulose 1,200 Gum karaya 1,500 Sodium alginate 2,000 Guar gum 4,200 ______________________________________ .sup.1 Industrial Gums, Roy L. Whistler, Ed., Academic Press, New York, 1973, p. 316.
An advantage to persons suffering from fluctuations in blood sugar, such as persons prone to hypoglycemia and particularly diabetics who are also concerned with hyperglycemia and hypercholesteremia, is inherent in hypocholesteremic adjuvants of SDF. For example, among other remarkable health giving benefits claimed, guar gum and locust bean gum have been proven to stabilize blood glucose/insulin, referred to as glucose insulin flattening response (GIR).
Though some confusion seems to exist about the benefits of soluble or non-soluble dietary fibers, including a concise definition, global health records clearly demonstrate that in cultures where adequate dietary fiber is consumed, there is an absence, for all practical purposes, of what have come to be known as "rich country" ailments and diseases. The fact that dietary fiber and SDF, in particular, are of major importance not only in maintaining good health but in preventing and even reversing many important serious diseases and health conditions has been known for many years by many in the particular art.
Notwithstanding the need for a convenient food adjunct which can be used routinely by the consumer, no convenient flavor enhancer and dose-related SDF food additive product is at present known to exist. In technologically advanced societies, it is not easy to obtain adequate dietary fiber without major changes in long held cultural eating habits. Supplements of SDF are both expensive and inconvenient to use. No product is known to exist in which the character of soluble fibers is altered so that they are immediately soluble and not mucilaginous, gummy or gritty when applied like table salt directly to food before consumption. Indeed, much of the value associated with SDF products is in their gummy, mucilaginous characteristics.
Scientific research has proven, and continues to prove, the efficacy of hypocholesteremic adjuvant, soluble dietary fibers in altering the progress of many disease states, including diverticulitis, some cancers, cardiovascular disease, arteriosclerotic conditions, and many others, merely by increasing dietary intake above minimum critical limits of many of a wide variety of SDF's. U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,114 entitled: "Method of Reducing Cholesterol Levels", issued to Fahrenbach and Riccardi, discloses, for example, the discovery that thirteen (13) mucilaginous substances exert a powerful hypocholesteremic adjuvant action when consumed in tests by poultry.
Soluble dietary fibers are those substantially polysaccharide or carbohydrate portions of food products, derived essentially from cell wall or biochemical property related constituents of plants, microorganisms and a few animals, which are edible, water soluble and gel forming materials substantially resistant to digestion by enzymes of man; and, are collectively referred to when food is analyzed as dietary fibers. Soluble dietary fibers have essentially no caloric value.
Pectins, agar, guar gum, gum arabic (acacia), bengal, tragacanth, agar, dextran, curdlan, locust bean, tamarind, arabinogalactan (larch gum), shiraz, karaya, tara, ghatti gum and carrageenan, psyllium husks and seed, alginic acids (C.sub.6 H.sub.8 O.sub.6) and many of its salts, xanthan and cellulose (C.sub.6 H.sub.10 O.sub.5) derivatives such as carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose are among those SDF's which have proven to be more or less HCA effective.
Included in the definition of SDF's are water soluble mucilages, pectic substances and plant gums, some storage polysaccharides, cellulose derivatives, synthetic gums, and polydextrose. Pectins such as high methoxyl and low methoxyl; gums such as oat, guar, bengal, locust bean, karaya, tara, ghatti, tragacanth, arabic (acacia), quince, sapote, furcelleran, watsonia, tamarind, psyllium, sodium alginate, carrageenan, agar, b-glucans; cellulose such as methylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose and hemicellulose; microbial gums such as xanthan; mucopolysaccharides; chondroitin sulfate; amino polysaccharides, such as chitin (C.sub.8 H.sub.13 NO.sub.5) and chitosan; xylan; propol; polygalturonic acid; and, arabinogalactans are specific, but not exhaustive, examples of a soluble dietary fiber of SDF.
Many soluble dietary fibers have flavor characteristics few of which are pleasant or strong. Their primary applications in foods depend on characteristic functional properties such as emulsification or thickening. They are used almost exclusively in food processing and not by the consumer or directly onto food prior to consumption.
Hydrocolloids are preeminent bearers of SDF's and, in general, are molecularly structured in four configurations:
Linear (Characteristics: usually not more than two copolymerized sugar units; high viscosity; unstable solutions; difficult to dissolve; risk of precipitation after dissolution--gelation. Examples are: cellulose, amylose, pectin, carrageenan, agar, alginate). PA1 Single Branch (Characteristics: sugar units condensed with carbon groups other than C-1 or C-4. Example is: dextran). PA1 Substituted Linear (Characteristics: numerous short branches often consisting of only one sugar unit in length. Examples are: locust bean gum, guar gum). PA1 Branch on Branch (Characteristics: side chains on side chains; more stable and less viscous than linear. Typically, two or more types of sugar make up the polysaccharide. Excellent adhesive properties. Examples are: amylopectin, gum arabic).
TABLE III ______________________________________ Linear ______________________________________
TABLE IV ______________________________________ Single Branch ##STR1## ______________________________________
TABLE V ______________________________________ Substituted Linear ##STR2## ______________________________________
TABLE V ______________________________________ Branch on Branch ##STR3## ______________________________________
There does not seem to be any relationship between the configuration of the particular soluble dietary fiber and its flavor amplification capabilities.